The residents of the Nelson Mandela Bay Metro are among the first in the country to feel the whiplash effect of last year’s local elections, when a minority of voters supported several tiny parties that now hold the balance of power.

Although the DA emerged as the largest party in “The Bay”, with 40% of the vote, we cannot reach the 50% +1 we need for a majority government without going into coalition with 9 other parties. This obviously gives these parties a level of leverage, unjustified by their voter support.

Across the board these parties promised to “Keep the ANC out”, during the election campaign last November.

The DA warned that a vote for any of them would increase the likelihood of entrenching the ANC in power -- and so, sadly, it has turned out to be.

Immediately after the election, induced by a range of ANC promises, these parties (with the notable exception of the ACDP and Freedom Front Plus) aligned with the ANC. It did not take long before they were utterly disillusioned and were putting out feelers to the DA to negotiate a new coalition.

We were very hesitant. There has never been a ten-party coalition in South Africa before -- let alone one between such widely divergent parties.

But the chorus of voices grew, urging us to do our best, despite the odds. Some accused us of being “afraid of getting into government” (an absurd accusation if I ever heard one).

Every time I visited Nelson Mandela Bay (and I have been there very often both before and after the election), people would stop me in the streets begging for the DA to "rescue" the city from the clutches of the inept and corrupt ANC.

When a range of smaller parties approached us, saying they had reached the end of the road with the ANC, we resolved to give it a try. For at least two months now, we have been meeting with these parties, who formed themselves into a grouping called “The Bloc” to maximise their leverage.

The document they sent us before negotiations began, was just a list of the positions they wished to hold in the new government. I told them the DA didn’t work that way. Our negotiation process starts with establishing common values, goals and objectives, joint structures, systems and procedures, conflict resolution mechanisms and (finally) the composition of government and the allocation of posts.

The discussion on principles and values went quickly, generating minimal interest from most of the other parties.

On two issues, though, they were on high alert and participated actively. One was the issuing of government positions. Although the DA would numerically comprise 77% of the new coalition government, the Bloc wanted us to be satisfied with just 4 out of the 14 portfolios that constitute the government. We made it clear that this was not acceptable.

But this issue faded away when their real priority was tabled: who would replace Dr Noxolo Nqwazi as the City Manager? Nothing was more important to at least five of the nine parties than this question. The reason, no doubt, is that the person who holds this position can control key administrative decisions, which can have significant benefits to “connected cadres”.

Despite our vehement objections, they insisted on supporting Mr Lonwabo Ngoqo for the position, although they knew he had been fired as Municipal Manager in the Bitou Municipality in the Western Cape in 2012, for serious financial misconduct. This involved a land purchase at R23-million for a property worth only R2,4-million. The Constitutional Court confirmed that he could not hold senior administrative office for 10 years.

This period had not yet lapsed when the Nelson Mandela Metro, under the ANC, began its recruitment process, that, with the help of some smaller parties, confirmed Mr Ngoqo in the powerful position at a Council meeting last night.

Earlier that day, during the coalition negotiations, the DA made it clear that we could not countenance that appointment -- and we had the distinct impression that there was agreement on this issue.

The about-turn was a matter of extreme bad faith by the following parties:

The Abantu Integrity Movement (Khusta Jack’s party),

The United Democratic Movement,

The African Independent Congress,

The Defenders of the People (DOP), and

GOOD.

Four of these parties have only a single Councillor. The DOP has two -- and their national leadership rejects these councillors’ support for the ANC.

Voters for any of these parties would do well to spend time contemplating the consequences of their vote: Another five years of ANC mis-rule under the auspices of a totally compromised City Manager.

This is happening at a time when the City is about to run out of water, and could really have benefited from the DA’s deep experience in managing the water crisis in Cape Town a few years ago.

Of course voters can vote for any party they choose. But they would do well to remember that everyone else also has to live with the consequence of their choices. I wish that benighted City all the best,. They did not deserve this fate.

Source: Facebook.